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There is a major fundamental difference between words and actions. On Saturday afternoon, Penn State straddled the line.

This is a team that has been through a lot since November. The reason why has been well-documented in all the papers. Their plight has been analyzed on television networks. Whether they should be permitted to even play these games at all has been a topic of debate on plenty of radio talk shows.

For these reasons and more, the Nittany Lions have talked all season about being a mentally tough football team, and it's fair to wonder if they questioned whether those were just words as Venric Mark sprinted down their sideline like Usain Bolt on the way to the finish line in the final moments of the third quarter.

Northwestern's pint-sized playmaker had been flirting with big punt returns throughout a see-saw of a midseason Big Ten game, and this time, he had it.

He fielded Alex Butterworth's 54-yard punt, made a quick move, took off up the sideline practically untouched and moseyed practically into the end zone 75 yards later. The score put Northwestern ahead by 11 points with 15:50 left to play.

All the Nittany Lions did was answer with maybe their best quarter of football in several seasons. They scored 22 points. They got two three-and-outs defensively against a potent Northwestern offense. Maybe the off-the-field horrors of the last 11 months made them that way.

Maybe, there's something else in play.

"I wouldn't heavily rely on all of that," Penn State safety Stephen Obeng-Agyapong said. "But everyone knows, we have been through adversity before. A lot. And we do use it as fuel." This easily could have been a blowout victory for Penn State. But, it wasn't.

This also easily could have been a heart-wrenching, season-changing loss for Penn State. And it wasn't that, either. Quite the opposite, it will go down as perhaps a signature moment of a program looking to weather a storm.

It takes a certain amount of bravado to do what the Nittany Lions did against Northwestern. Down 11 heading into the fourth quarter, they knew they might only get two more drives, at most.

And on them, they had to be perfect, to score twice, to eat up the clock, to play mistake-free football on a day where mistakes got them into the mess they were in.

After the punt return by Mark, coach Bill O'Brien said he sensed the wind knocked out of his players' sails slightly. Center Matt Stankiewitch called it "a lull." The feeling that a comeback would be in the offing wasn't exactly overflowing.

But neither was the sense that it was over.

"There was no panic," quarterback Matt McGloin insisted. "We didn't get upset. We didn't press ourselves. We just continued to play our game during the fourth quarter."

With all due respect to McGloin, the Nittany Lions weren't playing their game in the fourth quarter. They were playing out of their minds in the fourth quarter.

McGloin threw 15 passes. Just two weren't caught. And he made arguably the two biggest plays of his Penn State career.

The first helped the Nittany Lions get within 28-25. On fourth down and 4 from the Northwestern 6, he rolled right. From above, it appeared he could have run for the first down with relative ease. Instead, he side-armed a pass across his body - which coaches teach quarterbacks to never do - and into a sea of arms. It zipped through the crowd and into Allen Robinson's hands for a touchdown.

Fail to score there, and the Nittany Lions probably don't win. It was a do-or-die play. McGloin made it.

The next came with the ball marked at midfield. Third-and-goal from the 5 with 2:43 left. Don't score, and the Nittany Lions might have gone to their inconsistent-at-best kicker Sam Ficken, to try to tie it. That said...

"Everyone in the huddle was on the same page," fullback Michael Zordich said. "We need to get in the end zone. We need to end the game."

McGloin took the snap. Rolled right again. Kept his eyes up field again.

Then, he took off toward the pylon, beating diving defenders into the end zone with an awkward but effective dive that sent Beaver Stadium into a frenzy.

For Penn State, it was the perfect end to the imperfect game, a magic moment in a place that could use a few. To their coach, there is no such thing as meant-to-be. Even if there seems to be no other explanation.

"I do think there's a certain amount you can learn from every game," O'Brien said. "I do really try to, with our staff, preach playing 12 one-game seasons, and we have six one-game seasons left. So, at some time in the next 48 hours, we're going to have to forget about this one, start concentrating on the bye week and preparing for a very tough Iowa team."

That's the thing: How do you forget something unforgettable? This is a game these players might remember for the rest of their lives. Who knows if it will spur them toward a division title, or if it will be little more than the brightest spot in the season when history is written. But it had the feel of an important game. It had the feel of Penn State showing it was talented enough to blow out a ranked team and tough enough to recover when they backed themselves into a wall.

They showed they are more than just talk when it came to being mentally tough. So much so, the toughest part, mentally, might be getting past it.

DONNIE COLLINS covers Penn State football for The Sunday Times. Contact him at dcollins@timesshamrock.com, read his blog at http://blogs.thetimes-tribune.com/pennstate/, or follow him on Twitter @psubst

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